Top 5 Films

Over a meal last week some friends and I were discussing what we thought were the best films we had ever seen.

Clearly given our age profile a lot of "classic" films were missing. For example, Citizen Kane (directed by and starring Orson Welles) is often rated as the best film ever made, but none of us had seen this and so it was ignored. With the exception of one film, all the films were from the 70s onwards and we tried to judge the films on our enjoyment as well as the acting/direction etc...

I am happy to confirm that no methodology or framework was applied - this was nothing more than a few friends spouting bilge over a long meal. Furthermore, none of us would claim to be film aficionados and so you could argue (quite correctly) that we were talking uninformed rubbish. And, as is always the way, we couldn't agree on any order, although we did agree that there were two films we all though should be in the top 5.

So without further ado my top 5 films:

1) To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

This film starred Gregory Peck and is the adaptation of the book on racism in the Southern USA by the American author Harper Lee. The film is quite simply brilliant, one of the few book adaptions to do justice to the original book.

http://www.filmsite.org/toki.html


2) The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

This film stars Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman and is also an adaption of a book. Its about a man's wrongful conviction for murder and how he survives prison. Most of you have probably heard of this film, as, although it was not successful on its cinema release, its reputation has grown over the years. A film I have seen many times and each time it gets better.

http://www.filmsite.org/shaw.html


3) The Godfather (1972)

Francis Ford Coppola directing, Marlon Brando and Al Pacino starring and a great book by Mario Puzo. The other two parts are also superb and I cannot think of anything that I can write that has not been written before, so enough said.


4) Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back (1977-1983)

Perhaps a surprise but I remember watching this as a child (in fact all three of the original films) and just being amazed and transfixed by the film. You could argue about the dialogue and the complexity of the plot but the scene when the the link between Vader and Luke is revealed is pretty amazing. Also the special effects stand up almost 30 year later demonstrates how amazing these films were.

5) Lord of the Rings (2001-2003)

Having been a fan of the books I never thought that a film could do the books justice - how wrong I was. The vastness of Tolkien's world is communicated beautifully, and the acting and directing, together with the special effects, make this a brilliant set of films. Again films you can always watch again.


The key to the above film selection is that they all left a lasting impression on me (and my friends) and we would happily watch them again. Obviously, there are lots of other films that were considered e.g. Terminator 2, Pulp Fiction.

Also there are personal favourites, purely because you can enjoy a couple of hours of watching them and be entertained e.g. Back to the Future (the entire trilogy is a lot of fun), Indiana Jones (the trilogy), Ocean's Eleven (the recent one). Perhaps not the most critically lauded films but still a lot of fun.

So what about your top 5?